Red Tailed Wheatear

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The red-tailed wheatear (Oenanthe chrysopygia), also known as the rusty-tailed wheatear, Persian wheatear or Afghan wheatear, is a small passerine birdbreeding in mountainous areas of south-west and central Asia. It belongs to thewheatear genus Oenanthe which was formerly placed in the thrush family Turdidae but is now in the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae. The red-tailed wheatear used to be considered a subspecies of the Kurdistan wheatear (O. xanthoprymna) but is now often regarded as a separate species. It is 14.5 cm long with a wingspan of 26–27 cm and a weight of about 20-27 g.[2] Theplumage is fairly drab, mainly grey-brown above and greyish-white below. It has a faint pale stripe over the eye, a rufous tinge to the ear-coverts and silvery-white underwing-coverts.[3] The rump and bases of the outer tail-feathers are reddish while the rest of the tail is black forming a T-shaped pattern.[4] There is little difference between males and females but the male has black betwe